The Path of a Master Teacher
The Path of a Master Teacher
Fortunately, the Fourth Way is designed to be practiced in life. I am not required to live in seclusion at a monastery, an Ashram, or a Sufi lodge. In fact, the ordinary, everyday conditions of daily life offer the best possible place for me to work. Why? Because it is where my patterns of sleep have been acquired, these patterns which are intricately connected to my daily life need to be observed rather than avoided. I can begin now, right where I am and accelerate my progress by borrowing the will of the Teacher and working against these habits.
In the school, we have practical education, in which presence accompanies each aspect of our learning. One learns to do everything with presence—look, talk, taste, hear, feel .... We are a school, and what we learn is how to be present.
Why and how do I borrow the will of my Teacher? To begin with, a sleeping machine subject to the many ‘I’s, deceived by imagination, inclined to identification leading to the expression of negative emotions, does not have unity or will. That is why it is essential to have the guidance and use the will of a conscious Teacher who can show me the way out.
No teacher brings a new message; they just make the old one work. —The Teacher
Students borrow the Teacher’s will by following his instructions and being in his presence. My Teacher gives his students observations about their weaknesses and strengths, designs exercises to overcome areas of sleep, and may even give a specific task to a particular student to help them.
I spend my life for the presence of my students. —The Teacher
Although there is a vast geographical distance between us (I live on the East Coast and my Teacher lives on the West Coast), through daily on-line meetings, in-person meetings and dinners with the Teacher when I travel to see him, and working with suggestions, exercises and tasks that he offers to the worldwide community, I am able to feel his direct influence and be fueled by his energy.
From the very beginning up to our times, our glorious teachers who, shining like lamps in the world, have transmitted to one another right up till today this good seed, this precious pearl, this treasure buried in the field, this Divine fire, this seal, this light. This inheritance will continue to be so transmitted from generation to generation, even after our time. —Monk Callistus
My Teacher is nearly 90 years old, yet his own, relentless efforts inspire me to work beyond my level of being. He follows his own advice: “The teacher has to make much effort for his students. In a real school, a teacher is always ready to make more effort.” There are more than a thousand teaching events each year hosted by the Teacher and hundreds of on-line and in-person meetings as well as other cultural activities hosted by his students all over the world, who pass along his truth and his own special method of awakening.
A teacher can only realize himself by sincerely sharing objective knowledge that has been given by higher school. No teacher brings a new message—just a living re-creation of the same message. —The Teacher
If following a spiritual path required being in the physical presence of a Teacher and living in seclusion, it would be a spiritual path for very few and its influence would remain among a small group of people. Enlightenment is far too vast to be contained among a small group of people; this objective knowledge from Higher School is embodied and disseminated from a conscious Teacher to his students and beyond.
The Path of the Masters derives its substance in unbroken succession from the earliest times. It maintains its connection, in a parallel way, with both the ancients and the contemporary teachers by direct communication of being. —Bahauddin
Hermes Trismegistus, Father of the Philosophers, circa 1475
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